Book Review: Vinland Voyage by J. R. L. Anderson

decreased from 4.3% of the population in 1954 to 3.5% in 1964 (in the
U.S. 4.1% receive welfare assistance). The improved situation in
Sweden is due partly to increased pension payments and partly to the
success of the rehabilitation program. "Help for self-help" paid off.
The most challenging parts of the book are the later chapters where
Dr. Rosenthal examines the underlying philosophy of the Swedish
system and makes comparisons with the United States. He emphasizes
the uses of "constructive discontent," the constant reexamination and
reorganization which, for instance, has resulted in the diminution of
the number of communes from 3000 to 904. For the sake of fairness
Sweden readjusts welfare payments for shifts in cost of living and for
differences in location. Change is continuous. As compared with the
American system of health insurance the Swedish is broader in
coverage and practically universal in application, but the fundamental
purposes and problems are much the same in each case.
To the charge that state responsibility reduces individual initiative
and freedom Rosenthal responds with both statistics and reasons.
With the aid of the ombudsman and other safeguarding institutions
freedom and right are well maintained. The attitude toward govern­ment
as friend rather than foe is fundamental to the working of the
Swedish system. Incentives have been sufficient to give Sweden a
higher rate of growth in economic productivity, 1960-1965, than West
Germany, Great Britain or the United States. The cost of social
welfare is high, but the author's figures show that while the United
States spends 28.9% of its gross national product for social programs
Sweden spends only a little more — 32.4% of its GNP for the same
kind of programs.
Both Sweden and the United States in the 1960s are far different
societies than were the Sweden of the emigrants in the nineteenth
century and the America of the immigrants!
F.D.S.
V I N L A N D V O Y A G E . B y J. R. L . Anderson. New York: Funk and
Wagnalls, 1967. 278 pages. $6.95.
"Beware, young man, or you will find what you are looking for."
This warning motto of a medical professor to his students comes
insistently to mind as one reads this unusual tale of sailing adventure
and historical sleuthing. The question is, did the sailors on the
Griffin find the truth as well as what they were looking for?
Mr. J . R. L . Anderson earns his living with the English newspaper,
Guardian, but his heart is with yachting and the sea. Inspired by the
1965 publication of the T h e V i n l a n d M a p and Tartar R e l a t i o n he
determined to test his hypothesis that Vinland was the modern
207
Martha's Vineyard. With five carefully selected companions, he sailed
the North Atlantic in the 44-foot cutter Griffin, escaped threats of
collision, icebergs, fog and other perils, avoided the temptation of
"premature" landings, and ended on the shores of Martha's Vineyard.
The party left Greenland on June 2, 1966, and reached their
destination twenty-five days later. It was the time of year that
Anderson reasoned Leif would have saled, and in this and other ways
he did his best "not to reproduce but to r e c o n s t r u c t Leif's voyage to
Vinland." Just as Leif must have done, he started north in order to go
south. But if he sailed deliberately in the wake of Leif Ericsson he
also kept before him the saga record of Bjarni Herjulfsson — just as
did Leif himself. And the twentieth century trackers of old trails were
lucky (?) to meet the same strong northeaster and the many days of
fog that drove Bjarni so far from his route and over to the shores of
North America. Anderson thinks he can confirm that Nova Scotia was
Bjarni's first landfall: " "They could see that the country was not
mountainous, but was well wooded, and with low hills'" [from the
Greenlanders' Saga]. The modern yachtsman is convinced that the
wide beaches of Cape Cod must be the F u r d u s t r a n d i r or "wonder
sands" of the Vikings. He expounds a theory that the puzzling d o e gr
of the saga meant not a day in time but a standard sea distance (pp.
172-178), though this all involves considerable mental writhing. He
rules out Newfoundland as Vinland, though he thinks it was doubtless
one of several sites where the Greenlanders established long-lasting
colonies.
Here is a fresh — and a highly refreshing — approach to the Vinland
problem. It is a grand tale of the sea and human endurance and
ingenuity and comradeship, and it is full of detail about the equipment
of the little ship, and the complications of sailing a small craft through
the world's most difficult waters. Does this expedition prove at last
the location of much-located Vinland? Well — it shows at least that
things c o u l d have happened this way back about the year 1000. Taken
with the sagas, and with the V i n l a n d M a p and Tartar R e l a t i o n s , with
Farley Mowat's W e s t v i k i n g (strongly for Newfoundland), and other
works, this new and different account is well worth reading.
F.D.S.
208

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decreased from 4.3% of the population in 1954 to 3.5% in 1964 (in the
U.S. 4.1% receive welfare assistance). The improved situation in
Sweden is due partly to increased pension payments and partly to the
success of the rehabilitation program. "Help for self-help" paid off.
The most challenging parts of the book are the later chapters where
Dr. Rosenthal examines the underlying philosophy of the Swedish
system and makes comparisons with the United States. He emphasizes
the uses of "constructive discontent," the constant reexamination and
reorganization which, for instance, has resulted in the diminution of
the number of communes from 3000 to 904. For the sake of fairness
Sweden readjusts welfare payments for shifts in cost of living and for
differences in location. Change is continuous. As compared with the
American system of health insurance the Swedish is broader in
coverage and practically universal in application, but the fundamental
purposes and problems are much the same in each case.
To the charge that state responsibility reduces individual initiative
and freedom Rosenthal responds with both statistics and reasons.
With the aid of the ombudsman and other safeguarding institutions
freedom and right are well maintained. The attitude toward govern­ment
as friend rather than foe is fundamental to the working of the
Swedish system. Incentives have been sufficient to give Sweden a
higher rate of growth in economic productivity, 1960-1965, than West
Germany, Great Britain or the United States. The cost of social
welfare is high, but the author's figures show that while the United
States spends 28.9% of its gross national product for social programs
Sweden spends only a little more — 32.4% of its GNP for the same
kind of programs.
Both Sweden and the United States in the 1960s are far different
societies than were the Sweden of the emigrants in the nineteenth
century and the America of the immigrants!
F.D.S.
V I N L A N D V O Y A G E . B y J. R. L . Anderson. New York: Funk and
Wagnalls, 1967. 278 pages. $6.95.
"Beware, young man, or you will find what you are looking for."
This warning motto of a medical professor to his students comes
insistently to mind as one reads this unusual tale of sailing adventure
and historical sleuthing. The question is, did the sailors on the
Griffin find the truth as well as what they were looking for?
Mr. J . R. L . Anderson earns his living with the English newspaper,
Guardian, but his heart is with yachting and the sea. Inspired by the
1965 publication of the T h e V i n l a n d M a p and Tartar R e l a t i o n he
determined to test his hypothesis that Vinland was the modern
207
Martha's Vineyard. With five carefully selected companions, he sailed
the North Atlantic in the 44-foot cutter Griffin, escaped threats of
collision, icebergs, fog and other perils, avoided the temptation of
"premature" landings, and ended on the shores of Martha's Vineyard.
The party left Greenland on June 2, 1966, and reached their
destination twenty-five days later. It was the time of year that
Anderson reasoned Leif would have saled, and in this and other ways
he did his best "not to reproduce but to r e c o n s t r u c t Leif's voyage to
Vinland." Just as Leif must have done, he started north in order to go
south. But if he sailed deliberately in the wake of Leif Ericsson he
also kept before him the saga record of Bjarni Herjulfsson — just as
did Leif himself. And the twentieth century trackers of old trails were
lucky (?) to meet the same strong northeaster and the many days of
fog that drove Bjarni so far from his route and over to the shores of
North America. Anderson thinks he can confirm that Nova Scotia was
Bjarni's first landfall: " "They could see that the country was not
mountainous, but was well wooded, and with low hills'" [from the
Greenlanders' Saga]. The modern yachtsman is convinced that the
wide beaches of Cape Cod must be the F u r d u s t r a n d i r or "wonder
sands" of the Vikings. He expounds a theory that the puzzling d o e gr
of the saga meant not a day in time but a standard sea distance (pp.
172-178), though this all involves considerable mental writhing. He
rules out Newfoundland as Vinland, though he thinks it was doubtless
one of several sites where the Greenlanders established long-lasting
colonies.
Here is a fresh — and a highly refreshing — approach to the Vinland
problem. It is a grand tale of the sea and human endurance and
ingenuity and comradeship, and it is full of detail about the equipment
of the little ship, and the complications of sailing a small craft through
the world's most difficult waters. Does this expedition prove at last
the location of much-located Vinland? Well — it shows at least that
things c o u l d have happened this way back about the year 1000. Taken
with the sagas, and with the V i n l a n d M a p and Tartar R e l a t i o n s , with
Farley Mowat's W e s t v i k i n g (strongly for Newfoundland), and other
works, this new and different account is well worth reading.
F.D.S.
208